The Relic Master: A Novel

The year is 1517. Dismas is a relic hunter: one who procures "authentic" religious relics for wealthy and influential clients. His two most important patrons are Frederick the Wise, elector of Saxony; and soon-to-be Cardinal Albrecht of Mainz. While Frederick is drawn to the recent writing of Martin Luther, Albrecht pursues the financial and political benefits of religion and seeks to buy a cardinalship through the selling of indulgences.

Boomsday: A Novel

Cassandra Devine, a young Washington spin doctor and blogger, suggests that Baby Boomers be given government incentives to kill themselves by age 75. This proposal catches on with citizens outraged about Social Security debt and a senator seeking the youth vote for his presidential bid. With the help of Washington's greatest PR strategist, Cassandra and the senator try to ride the issue of euthanasia to the White House.

Supreme Courtship

President of the United States Donald Vanderdamp is having a hell of a time getting his nominees appointed to the Supreme Court. After one nominee is rejected for insufficiently appreciating To Kill A Mockingbird, the president chooses someone so beloved by voters that the Senate won't have the guts to reject her.

But Enough About You: Essays

Christopher Buckley at his best: an extraordinary, wide-ranging selection of essays both hilarious and poignant, irreverent and delightful. In his first book of essays since his 1997 best seller, Wry Martinis, Buckley delivers a rare combination of big ideas and truly fun writing. Listening to these essays is the equivalent of being in the company of a tremendously witty and enlightening companion.

No Way to Treat a First Lady

One of this country's leading political satirists dangles before us a tantalizing novel whose protagonist has a great deal in common with a recent First Lady. Beth MacIntyre, First Lady of the United States, has been charged with the murder of her husband, a Presidential Lothario of the first water. She is accused of throwing a historic Paul Revere spittoon during a bedroom spat, putting an unfortunately fatal dent in the President's lust-filled head.

Razor Girl: A Novel

When Lane Coolman's car is bashed from behind on the road to the Florida Keys, what appears to be an ordinary accident is anything but (this is Hiaasen!). Behind the wheel of the other car is Merry Mansfield - the eponymous Razor Girl - and the crash scam is only the beginning of events that spiral crazily out of control while unleashing some of the wildest characters Hiaasen has ever set loose.

They Eat Puppies, Don't They?: A Novel

In an attempt to gain congressional approval for a top-secret weapons system, Washington lobbyist "Bird" McIntyre teams up with sexy, outspoken neocon Angel Templeton to pit the American public against the Chinese. When Bird fails to uncover an authentic reason to slander the nation, he and Angel put the Washington media machine to work, spreading a rumor that the Chinese secret service is working to assassinate the Dalai Lama.

Once upon a Time in Russia: The Rise of the Oligarchs and the Greatest Wealth in History

The best-selling author of Bringing Down the House (63 weeks on the New York Times best seller list and the basis for the hit movie 21) and The Accidental Billionaires (the basis for the Academy Award-winning film The Social Network) delivers an epic drama of wealth, rivalry, and betrayal among megawealthy Russian oligarchs - and its international repercussions.

The Making of Donald Trump

The culmination of nearly 30 years of reporting on Donald Trump, Pulitzer Prize-winning investigative reporter David Cay Johnston takes a revealingly close look at the mogul's rise to power and prominence. Covering the long arc of Trump's career, Johnston tells the full story of how a boy from a quiet section of Queens, New York, would become an entirely new and complex breed of public figure. Trump is a man of great media savvy, entrepreneurial spirit, and political clout. Yet, his career has been plagued by legal troubles and mounting controversy

Thank You for Arguing: What Aristotle, Lincoln, And Homer Simpson Can Teach Us About the Art of Persuasion

Thank You for Arguing is your master class in the art of persuasion, taught by professors ranging from Bart Simpson to Winston Churchill. The time-tested secrets the book discloses include Cicero's three-step strategy for moving an audience to action as well as Honest Abe's shameless trick of lowering an audience's expectations by pretending to be unpolished. But it's also replete with contemporary techniques such as politicians' use of “code” language to appeal to specific groups and an eye-opening assortment of popular-culture dodges.

The White Tiger: A Novel

Balram Halwai is a complicated man. Servant. Philosopher. Entrepreneur. Murderer. Balram tells us the terrible and transfixing story of how he came to be a success in life - having nothing but his own wits to help him along. Through Balram's eyes, we see India as we've never seen it before: the cockroaches and the call centers, the prostitutes and the worshippers, the water buffalo and, trapped in so many kinds of cages that escape is (almost) impossible, the white tiger.

With a charisma as undeniable as it is unexpected, Balram teaches us that religion doesn't create morality and money doesn't solve every problem.

Swing Time

Two brown girls dream of being dancers - but only one, Tracey, has talent. The other has ideas: about rhythm and time, about black bodies and black music, what constitutes a tribe or makes a person truly free. It's a close but complicated childhood friendship that ends abruptly in their early 20s, never to be revisited but never quite forgotten either....

Florence of Arabia

Christopher Buckley's comic thriller takes readers to the Arab land of Matar, where a philandering emir allays his restless wife by allowing her to start a TV network for Arab women. She is joined in this endeavor by a maverick American State Department officer known as Florence, who wants to use the TV network to start a revolution among Islamic women.

Practical Demonkeeping

In Christopher Moore's ingenious debut novel, we meet one of the most memorably mismatched pairs in the annals of literature. The good-looking one is one-hundred-year-old ex-seminarian and "roads" scholar Travis O'Hearn. The green one is Catch, a demon with a nasty habit of eating most of the people he meets.

All the King's Men

The fictionalized account of Louisiana's colorful and notorious governor, Huey Pierce Long, All the King's Men follows the startling rise and fall of Willie Stark, a country lawyer in the Deep South of the 1930s. Beset by political enemies, Stark seeks aid from his right-hand man Jack Burden, who will bear witness to the cataclysmic unfolding of this very American tragedy.

Narconomics: How to Run a Drug Cartel

What drug lords learned from big business. How does a budding cartel boss succeed (and survive) in the $300 billion illegal drug business? By learning from the best, of course. From creating brand value to fine-tuning customer service, the folks running cartels have been attentive students of the strategy and tactics used by corporations such as Walmart, McDonald's, and Coca-Cola.

The New Tsar: The Rise and Reign of Vladimir Putin

The epic tale of the rise to power of Russia's current president - the only complete biography in English - that fully captures his emergence from shrouded obscurity and deprivation to become one of the most consequential and complicated leaders in modern history, by the former New York Times Moscow bureau chief.

Publisher's Summary

Nick Naylor, chief spokesman for the Academy of Tobacco Studies is the hero of Christopher Buckley's wickedly funny Thank You for Smoking. Nick likes his job. In the neo-puritanical nineties, it's a challenge to defend the rights of smokers and a privilege to promote their liberty. Sure, it hurts a little when you're compared to Nazi war criminals, but Nick's just doing what it takes to pay the mortgage and put his son through Washington's elite private school St. Euthanasius.

Nick can handle the pressure from the anti-smoking zealots, but he's less certain about his new boss, who questions whether Nick is worth $150,000 a year to fight a losing war. Nick seeks inspiration and solace from 2 sympathetic souls who work for the firearms and alcohol lobbies. They call themselves the Merchants of Death, and together, they bemoan their plight and argue over which of them has the most deadly job.

Under pressure to produce results, Nick goes on a PR offensive, turning appearances on Oprah and Larry King Live into national events. But Nick's heightened notoriety makes him a nice target for someone who wants to prove just how hazardous smoking can be. If Nick isn't careful, he'll be stubbed out.

Don't miss Christopher Buckley, Steve Martin, and other humorists discussing their craft at the New Yorker Festival.

Nick Naylor is the bad guy that's in all of us. He gets to be bad for fun and profit. In fact, he gets paid for lying, and job that many of us would probably really enjoy. This was a shorter book than I would have liked; I wanted it to go on I was having such a good time. The dialog was crisp and clearly written and the plot was well done, although the major plot twist I saw coming. Even though I saw it coming, it didn't lessen my enjoyment of the book in any way.
I recommend Thank You For Smoking!

This book is a much better listen than Buckley's Little Green Men. In addition to being educational (lots of smoking facts are presented) it is deliciously evil. It's always fun to play the bad guy and this book does just that. Highly recommended.

I didn't find any extremes in this book...nothing awful, nothing great. The performance came closest to awful, but wasn't quite that bad, just not very good. I don't like Glover's voice, don't think his characterizations are particularly good, am not terribly impressed with his pacing and emphasis.

Since I'm not thrilled with the reader, it's hard to say whether the book would've seemed better with a better reader. I definitely did not pick up much i the way of humor, and definitely didn't find it "wickedly funny." It's not that I lack a sense of humor or don't like dark, sarcastic, or satirical humor --I particularly love all 3. I just didn't think they existed much in this book. The MoD sounded like a number of the people I've worked with...the worst ones, who spend all their time griping & sniping, pithing & moaning, just being generally annoying. I've been forced to spend too much time around people like that in life, I certainly don't find listening to them to be entertainment.

Too bad it was abridged; I liked the character development and I liked that he got us to like the main character, even though he was despicable. The abridgment made it feel like it was missing something.